Proposing a Large SCRI Project

Sanjiv Singh

CASC Principal Investigator

Marcel Bergerman

CASC Project Manager

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Make up of a successful proposal

Ideas mustbe novel

Work shouldbe doable

Results shouldbe measurable

Team shouldbe credible

Funding agency’sinterests and criteria

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Examples of agencies’ interests and criteria

• NSF– Intellectual merit

– Social impact

– Not big on systems

• DARPA– Paradigm shifting technology

– Military relevance

– Not big on social impact

• NASA– Technologies for extreme

environments

– Space relevance

– Dual use

• USDA SCRI– Multi-disciplinary

– Multi-state

– Cross-cutting across crops

– Gets out in the world (e.g. via ag extension)

– Good chance that the enterprise will grow after USDA funding ends

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Challenge of large proposals

• Scope can be so wide that no single person is a expert in all of the topics, BUT

• Proposal needs to show an integrated approach, can’t be piece meal

• WHOLE MUST BE GREATER THAN THE SUM OF THE PARTS

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Developing Large SCRI Proposals

• Develop good links with industry being served

• Get good research partners– Best partners are complementary, not your competition

– Diversify between plant scientists, engineers, extension personnel and corporations

• Get university behind project– Will need to sign off on match

– Will need to cooperate on submission

• Find matching funds– Best source is the community who will benefit: growers, industry

consortia and equipment manufacturers

– USDA rules make some equipment matches difficult

– Match commitments must be firm

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Developing Large SCRI Proposals (cont.)

• Leader (preferably the PD) for strategy– Selects collaborators

– Negotiates budget allocation with collaborators

– Final word on resolving conflicts

– Sets proposal outline and page budgets

• Proposal manager– Integrates contributions from team

– Makes sure all requirements from solicitation are met

• Review team– Not the researchers who write the proposal

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Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops

• Four-year project focused on apple and nursery tree industry

• Participants– Academia: CMU, Penn State, Washington State, Oregon State, Purdue

– Industry: Vision Robotics, Toro, Trimble

– Government: USDA-ARS

– Farmers, growers, and associations

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How CASC was put together

• Started discussions with Penn State/apple growers 9 months before proposal deadline

• Identified movers and shakers in the industry, attracted them

• Started and stayed with a single project lead

• Created an outline of the proposal

• Refused to accept text already written– No writing until outline accepted

• Each theme required to articulate (3 slides)– Leader

– Problem: agnostic to solution (e.g. need to detect disease)

– Approach: how the problem is solved (e.g. use computer vision)

– Milestones: Concrete results (e.g. will build a mobile sensor in year 1, test in year 2)

– Criteria for success: (e.g. will drive 1 km in year 1)

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How CASC was put together (cont.)

• Outline turned into a statement of work for each subcontractor

• Once picture clear, asked team members to write in a structured way with fixed page limits

• Core group of people huddled and wrote front end and back end

• Conducted “Red Team” review by others who have written large proposals

• Got much help from budget offices at PSU, OSU and WSU

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Summary

• Start discussions with industry early

• Land usage has great match potential, but cash contributions are the way to tell if the industry is really serious

• Outline! Don’t write until content is clear

• Set metrics (criteria for success) to clarify that your project will be beneficial

• Get experienced people to manage proposal and run project

• Proposal should read like it was written by a single entity

• Get industry leaders on your advisory panel

Thank you.